Events

Readings, Workshops and other Events

Getting Some New Poems Started – a Five Week Short Course on Zoom, run by Welshpool Poetry Festival and led by Jonathan Davidson

Sundays 4th , 11th, 18th , 25th May and 1st June 2025, 19:00 to 21:00 BST

Online, £125 (bursaries available).

This course is for poets wanting to start new work but also to get some general advice and guidance one enjoying the poetry scene. Using some fine examples of good poetry to guide us, we will use quick exercises, group discussion and some sharing of work to get our poems started – and quite possibly finished.

Aimed at anyone currently writing poetry (or wishing they were), it will be run through a series of two hour Zoom meetings. The course will be friendly and relaxed, with plenty of opportunity to both learn and contribute. There will almost certainly be an unfathomably generous ‘end of course raffle’ to spur us on to the end.

Course facilitator, Jonathan Davidson, is a poet, writer and literature activist. His poetry has been widely published and he has also written memoir and criticism. His radio dramas and adaptations have been broadcast by BBC Radios 3 and 4. Much of his work is focussed on how writing – especially poetry – is experienced by readers and listeners. His most recent collection is A Commonplace (Smith|Doorstop, 2020) and Downland (Two Rivers Press, May 2024). His previous book, On Poetry (Smith|Doorstop, 2018), a combination of memoir and manual, was included in The Guardian’s Top 10 Books About Creative Writing in 2020.

To reserve a place and for payment details or to request a bursary place please e-mail Pat Edwards at chelseavillas@btinternet.com.

Places available: 11

Requirements: the course will be run on Zoom so participants will need internet access. Advice on using Zoom will be provided

Booking deadline: Saturday 26^th April 2025